The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-06-26
me POOR MANS YACHT.


and that the &c .efal pubic Is awe TO
the nice points of handling boats. In
deed, there are comparatively few who
comprehend more about these reuarka-
BILE events than that the American boat.
by an extraordinary use of technical
/ terms, beat the Britisher out of sight as
| the climax to the seasol of building,
prophesying and trial racing. But every
body should know that yachting does
not necessarily imply racing. Ii should
be clear that if racing were the only in
centive to yacht building there would be
| few racers on the water; that the pleas
ure of the owner and his friends in indie
/ pendent navigation Is what leads to spot
| ting the .larbors and bays with clean
white sails; and further, that this true,
original kind of yachting may be cult
/ waited i'm every part of the country unless
/ it be i'm some town stuck ON the steep
/ slope of a mountain; and even there If
/ an enterprising manufacturer obstructs
a stream with dam there may be made
an artificial surface suitable for marine
diversion. And as people wake up to
/ their possibilities for enjoyment the
beautiful sport of the sea. makes its APP
/ pearance inland-on the rivers, lakes
and shallow ponds that lie hundreds OF
miles from any water whose length or
breadth cannot be SPAWNED with a glance
| of the naked eye. 1t might be more in
telligible to speak of this form of the
| sport as cat-boat sailing. but 1t is yacht
ing nevertheless, and a crack sailor of
| the Atlantic yacht clubs finds his best
| diversion in the cat-boat, and not infre-
| quently his success in a race.
| ADVANTAGES OF THE CAT-BOAT-
That famous old salt, Nils Olsen. stew
| ard of the New York Yacht Club, ought
| to speak impartially on the subject, hav-
ind
| of boat that floats. Like most sailors,
Olsen intersperses his remarks with
| strange words, that, though pregnant
with meaning on the heaving biilow,
are as sounding brass when spoken on
land. In substance, then, Nils Olsen,
says:
There isn't better craft to have fun
in than a cat-boat- Various things ac-
count for this. 1t is a very easy boat for
a man to handle alone it can O almost
anywhere; is swift and comfortable; it
is comparatively inexpensive to build
and maintain, and it is safe. drther,
one of the reasons that make amateur
sailors like it is the ease with which ii
may be brought into dock or alongside
a wharf. But there are not nearly as
many cat-boats in this vicinity as there
used to be. The main reason for this Is
that the waters of the inner bay have
ping SO much . , that pl, a sure sailing
has been seriously impeded. The cat
boat, you know, is not so available for
open sea sailing as sloOps or schoOners; not
that men cannot and do not go out miles
from land in cat-boats, but that in heavy
weather, with strong wind and high
waves, they are neither SO comfortable
nor so safe as other models. So the
principal use to which cat-bOa,ts here
a homie mn IL N take nf the
seaside hotels out for short trips near
the coast.
HOW AMATEURS REGARD THE CAT-BOAT.
Amateurs. or rather those who never
sailed boat, look upon the cat-rig as the
easiest and simplest thing to handle
And presume they are right, but it is
nevertheless no FOOLS job TO sail one cor
rectly and with safety. My advice to a
man who has never sailed one is to stay
on shore rather than go out alone. A
man should take lessons in it just as he
does in mastering any science or art.
Elk Experience, after the first lessons, will
teach great deal But speaking gener-
ally there are only three things that the
skipper has to do-attend to the tiller.
the sheet and the halyar,is." It should
be made clear that the sheet is the
rope by which the skipper controls the
working of the sail. 1t is attached to
the end of the boom and to the stern of
the boat, just over the tiller. The hal
yards" is the rope by which one raises
the sail, and when the sail is set this
rope is passed un1er a cleat on the mast
near the deck and then brought to the
cockpit, the place where the skipper sits,
and Delayed upon another cleat, which
translated, signifies fastened upon the
cleat by making several turns about it
without tying. The skipper, therefore.
has all the simple rigging of his craft so
close at hand that he can handle any or
all of it without rising from his seat
MIR. Oslen continued:
There is, of course, the centre-board
but as it has SO seldom to be modified it
can hardly count as a feature of the
shippers regular care. The skipper
should never forget that on the water,
e zen in the most quiet weather, are GER
tain dangers; he has not only his own
life but almost always the lives of others
also in his charge, and therefore he
should never allow himself TO take his
attention from his duties. And he
should give his companions to under
stand that their relationship to him is
like that OF crew to captain. OF course
he will do all the work, but in case of
fun on board his authority should be I'M
questioned in regard to stopping it, or
keeping still. or changing of positions.
His attitude i'm the boat varies little.
either in calm or stormy weather; he
has one hand on the tiller and generally
one on the sheet. He sits so that if he
were to look straight ahead he would
look at about an angle of forty-five de
greeS with the direction in which the
boat Is gOing-that is, he faces diagO-
nally across the boat, but he turns his
head SO that he really looks directly at
the point from which the wind blows,
unless, of course, he be sailing before
the wind. Most cat-boat sailers like to
shape their course so that the wind is on
the beam-that is. blowing ut about right
angles to- the direction in which the boat
is going. They like this because the
boat goes faster under such circumstan-
ces and is easy to handle and steer. In
such a case, therefore, the shippers head
will be turned considerably ON his
shoulders in order to look to windward
He must also keep his eyes on the sail,
because from the way it behaves he may
know what he ought to do. And nat
urally he must see that the craft bears
down on nothing ahead that it may be
injudicious to collide with. As matter
of fact. then, he looks alternately on
the wind and sail"
KEEPING AN EYE ON THE WIND.
.'Why does he have to keep an eye on
the wind?"
ITO be able to know when a squall is
coming and to prepare for it, Il good
sailor can always tell when a squall is
coming, and he should never let it take
him by surprise. The pressure of the
tiller of cat-boat is considerable. and
is often fatiguing To a skipper. 1t is not
infrequently the case that the force re
quired to keep the tiller in place is equiv
alent to lifting fifty pounds or more
Most SINNERS assist themselves by "A